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Sidestepping due process

Why is it that people want to go and change the rules when things don’t go their way?

That is what appears to be happening at the Capital Regional District Planning, Transportation and Protection Services Committee. The hot button issue of development in the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area is making CRD directors scramble to change voting structures because of a persistent organized campaign by activists from throughout the region.

Director Mike Hicks is angry and he has every right to be. When he states they are meddling with the governance that is legislated for the JDFEA, he is right. Now that we are getting closer to election time, the directors are perhaps aligning themselves with those they think can help them maintain their seats at the board table. But what they are forgetting is that it is those on the voters’ lists who get them into office. The residents, not the reactionaries.

The CRD was originally created to govern unincorporated areas but now it seems they have become a second level of government, responsible and accountable only to themselves. The voting structure in the JDFEA has been an issue for some time, including a trip to court to overturn the $100 buy-a-vote scheme. The court upheld the original voting structure which is the one in existence now, the four closest municipalities and its mayors plus the regional director get to vote. If the voting structure can change every time there is opposition, then our governance process is in jeopardy and if it is in the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area now, it could be Metchosin, Sooke or Colwood next. Is that what we want?